John Kirby, beloved celebrity acting coach and Bruce Kirby's son, dies of ALS

John Kirby, a seasoned acting manager and lad of histrion Bruce Kirby, died Wednesday aft a three-year conflict with ALS. He was 75.

His longtime adjunct and caregiver Nathan Nesbitt confirmed his decease to The Times connected Monday.

“I can’t crook connected a tv oregon ticker a movie without recognizing idiosyncratic John coached, mentored oregon influenced,” Nesbitt said successful his obituary. “His fingerprints are everyplace successful this industry. His interaction extends acold beyond the performances we spot connected surface — it’s woven into the precise cloth of Hollywood.”

Throughout his career, Kirby earned the nickname “Actor’s Guardian Angel.” His acting doctrine — grounded connected creating a harmless abstraction for performers to attack each relation without fearfulness portion protecting the creator — was utilized by Jeff Bridges, Jim Caviezel, Cameron Diaz, Morris Chestnut, Hilary Duff and Chrissy Metz.

His extended enactment with Caviezel spanned galore films specified arsenic “The Thin Red Line” (1998), “Angel Eyes” (2001), “The Count of Monte Cristo” (2002), “High Crimes” (2002), “I Am David” (2003), and Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” (2004).

Building a vocation arsenic a teacher done connection of mouth, Kirby besides worked connected films specified arsenic “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (2005), “Stick It” (2006), “Underdog” (2007) and “Prom” (2011).

Kirby came from a household of actors. His father, Bruce, played Sgt. George Kramer connected NBC’s long-running amusement “Columbo.” His member Bruno appeared successful films specified arsenic “Good Morning, Vietnam” (1987), “When Harry Met Sally” (1989) and “City Slickers (1991).

Kirby noticed ALS symptoms successful June 2022. In July 2023, helium was diagnosed with the illness aft breaking his hep pursuing a autumn and requiring surgery. He was fixed six months to live.

Metz, who was coached by Kirby portion filming the NBC play “This Is Us” and the 2019 movie “Breakthrough” and continued to enactment with him portion helium battled ALS, posted a tribute to her person and mentor connected Instagram.

“I volition ne'er beryllium capable to convey you capable for believing successful me. I volition ne'er get implicit your innate consciousness of intuition, each azygous time. In your suffering, you remained a superb and selfless teacher who volition proceed to bring radical together,” she captioned a photograph of the two.

A nationalist solemnisation of his beingness volition beryllium held Aug. 17 astatine 1 p.m. astatine Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills’ Hall of Liberty.